This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Third Football League" Croatia – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(July 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Third Football League

Founded	1956 as Četvrta HNL
Country	Croatia
Confederation	UEFA
Number of clubs	74 (in 5 groups)
Level on pyramid	4
Promotion to	2. NL
Relegation to	1. ŽNL[a] 4. NL Rijeka[b] 4. nogometna liga Središte Zagreb [hr][c][1] 4. NL Bjelovar-Koprivnica-Virovitica[d] Međužupanijska nogometna liga Osijek – Vinkovci [hr][e][2] Međužupanijska nogometna liga Slavonski Brod – Požega [hr][f][3]
Domestic cup	Hrvatski kup
Current:2025–26

TheTreća nogometna liga (English:Third football league), commonlyTreća NL or3. NL, is the fourth tier of theCroatian football league system. The league was reestablished in 2022 following the reconstruction of league system in Croatia. It is operated by theCroatian Football Federation.^[4]

The fourth Croatian football league was played for the first time in 2006, after the merger of the 2. HNL - North and 2. HNL - South into a single2. HNL. With the aforementioned changes, part of the clubs from the second league were relegated to the3. HNL, and part of the clubs from the third leagues, together with the best clubs of the county leagues, formed the newly created groups of the 4. HNL. After the dissolution of the 4. HNL in 2012, inter-county football leagues corresponding to the previous groups of the 4th HNL were founded in some areas.

In earlier championships, the fourth class of football leagues was represented by the First County Football League, except in the 1995–96 seasons and in 1996–97, when with the creation of the 1. B HNL (which in reality represented the second class), the fourth competitive class was actually represented by the 3. HNL. In the 1994–95 season, there was also the 4. HNL, which was then created as a successor to the regional leagues, but did not survive for more than one season, and then functioned under that name only in the territory of Northern Croatia.

The competition takes place in five groups of up to eighteen (18) clubs according to the double point system, and the exact number of participants is determined by the competition regulations. From each group, the last-placed club and as many as necessary for the groups to number 16 clubs must be eliminated.^[5]

Groups are formed and managed in the HNS regional centers:

• the center ofRijeka form the West group,

• the center ofZagreb form the Centar group,

• the center ofOsijek form the East group,

• the center ofVaraždin form the North group,

• the center ofSplit form the South group.

Key

• Third League East at the website ofCroatian Football Federation
• Third League South at the website ofCroatian Football Federation
• Third League North at the website ofCroatian Football Federation
• Third League Center at the website ofCroatian Football Federation
• Third League West at the website ofCroatian Football Federation

• Third Football League (Croatia)
• Men's football leagues in Croatia
• Fourth-level football leagues in Europe
• Professional sports leagues in Croatia
• Croatian Football Federation competitions

• CS1 Croatian-language sources (hr)
• Articles needing additional references from July 2022
• All articles needing additional references
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles containing explicitly cited English-language text